Method and System for Presenting and Operating a Skill-Based Activity

ABSTRACT

A system for presenting a skill-based game, the system includes at least one server to serve a set of matchups of participants of an event, to a plurality of presentation devices, the plurality of presentation devices displaying the set of matchups on a display; to receive over the wide area network data from the presentation devices characterizing a set of user selected winners of the matchups made by the users; update the event data pertinent to participants in the actual events; using the updated data to calculate and assign payoffs to the users based on fixed payoff odds. A related computer-implemented method provides participant matchups to an operator organizing such a skill-based game.

PRIORITY

The present patent application is a continuation of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 17/509,766, filed on Oct. 25, 2021, which is acontinuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 17/184,264, filed Feb.24, 2021, now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 11,157,147, which is acontinuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 16/502,169, filed Jul.3, 2019, now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 11,042,264, which is a continuationof U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/847,795 filed Sep. 8, 2015, nowissued as U.S. Pat. No. 10,353,543, which application claims priorityfrom U.S. provisional patent application Ser. No. 62/047,473, filed Sep.8, 2014 and U.S. provisional patent application Ser. No. 62/106,613filed on Jan. 22, 2015. Each of these applications is herebyincorporated herein, in its entirety, by reference.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to methods of presenting and playingskill-based fantasy-type gaming activities.

BACKGROUND ART

Sports wagering is a very popular activity because it increases faninterest and excitement in sports events. With a wager at stake, a fan'sinterest in the outcome of a sports event is heightened. Also, sportswagering increases a fan's interest in a sport as the fan tracks teamsand players in an attempt to place wagers that they believe will bewinning. Sports wagering both land-based and internet-based have beenestablished to offers such services and depend on jurisdictional laws.

Sports wagering, however, is not legal in many locations. As a result,other types of activities have been created to increase fan interest andexcitement associated with sporting events. As one example, fantasysports have been created. These activities correlate the performance ofplayers or sets of players involved in actual sports events to anon-wagering entertainment activity.

Skill-based games that allow a player to participate with real moneypurchases with resulting prizes based on the user's skill have becomepopular. Such games allow a user to engage in a skill where they competeand play against other users. Examples of such skill-based games includegames such as Diamond Strike, poker, and fantasy sports leagues (e.g.baseball, football etc.).

In one implementation of a fantasy football league, a fan forms afantasy football team comprised of a collection of individual playersfrom a set of different football teams. For example, a fan might pick aquarterback from one football team, a running back from another footballteam, and so on, in order to create an imaginary or “fantasy” teamcomprising a collection of players who do not actually form a real team.

Generally, fans pit their fantasy teams against the fantasy teams ofother fans usually over the course of professional football season.Commonly, fans pay an entry fee to participate in the fantasy activityand winnings are paid from a pool formed from the entry fees. Thewinner(s) of the fantasy activity may be determined in a number offashions. In one common configuration, scores are assigned to eachplayer based upon their performance in an actual game. A fan's fantasyteam score then comprises the aggregate of the scores of each of theplayers on their team. The winner(s) of a particular fantasy activityare the fan(s) whose team(s) achieves the highest score. Winners may bepaid at the end of each week of play or at the end of the season.

While fantasy sports activities are popular, there are several reasonswhy the popularity of such activities is limited. The primary drawbackto participating in such fantasy sports activities is the time, effortand understanding of creating teams or selecting players involved informing and managing a fantasy team. For example, a group of fans mayform a fantasy sports pool. Initially, the fans draft or pick players toform their teams. The fans may pick players one at a time in order, insimilar fashion to current actual player drafts. In some cases, fans ofthe same pool are not permitted to select the same players. Thus, eachfan must carefully form a fantasy team by evaluating the best playersstill available when considering the prior picks of other fans. Theprocess of picking the teams may take hours or days and involve spendinglarge amounts of time evaluating available players to be picked. Forexample, a fan may spend a significant amount of time analyzingstatistics, predicted performances, and many other factors for eachpotential player the fan might wish to draft. The fan might also takeinto account past performance of each player, the current health statusof each player, and so on, to make draft selections.

When the fantasy activity spans multiple games, such as an entireseason, a fan may adjust their fantasy player roster to address issuessuch as injury to the actual players, team matchups and other factorsthat may affect a player's performance. There are different variationsof these types of fantasy team-type activities, each having their ownrules. However, in general, participation in these activities is timeconsuming, often deterring fans from participating in the activities.

Other drawbacks may keep fans from participating in these activities.For example, with traditional fantasy sports activities, a fan must beready to participate before a season of a particular sport begins, orelse the fan risks being left out and must wait until the next season.Further, it may be difficult for a fan to join multiple leagues or tobuy multiple entries from the same provider. Traditional fantasy sportsmay be difficult for a fan to play casually or a quickly as a fan mightdesire. Finally, from the perspective of an operator, it may bedifficult to attract casual sports fans with traditional fantasy sports.

It is thus desirable to develop a new fantasy-sports type activity thatovercomes the limitations of existing activities as previouslydescribed.

SUMMARY OF THE EMBODIMENTS

Embodiments of the invention comprise methods and systems for presentingfantasy sports related activities. The method and systems include atleast one activity server system comprising a processor configured toexecute machine-readable code. The machine-readable code executed by theprocessor is configured to cause the server to create a set of activitymatchups. The matchups each include at least one participant of an event(e.g. a player in a professional sporting event). The server furthertransmits the set of matchups to a plurality of presentation devices(such as fans' mobile devices, computers, smart television, gameconsoles etc.)). The plurality of presentation devices is configured todisplay the set of matchups on a display for selection by a fan. Thecode executed by the processor also enables the server to receiveselections of at least one matchup of the set of matchups from the fan,with the selection being input on one of the plurality of presentationdevices. Typically, the fan will need to select a minimum number ofmatchups and winners for that matchup. The lower bound is generallythree matchups with no limit on the upper bound with the exception of arestraint placed by the operator. The server further determines actualoutcomes of the set of matchups and compares the outcomes with theselections received from the fan. If the fan has correctly selected theactual outcomes of the at least one matchup of the set of matchups fromthe fan, the server, based on a known payout table previously presentedto the fan, then determines winning selections and then calculates thepayoff amounts to the fan.

In a preferred embodiment, the matchups relate to sports events. Thematchups may pair one or more players, wherein a fan attempts to pickthe player(s) of the matchup who they believe will be the winner of thematchup. The winner of each matchup is preferably determined byperformance criteria of the players in the actual sporting event(s). Theperformance criterion includes a set of predetermined rules and amethodology for scoring each participant according to performancestatistics. The final determination of a players performance isdetermined by the calculation of a ‘fantasy points score’ where pointsawarded based on their game performance/statistics—i.e. touchdown +5pts, Fumble −2 pts.

In accordance with the invention, a skill-based activity is created thatincreases the excitement of associated sports events or the like, whiledecreasing the time, effort, and coordination required to participate inthe activity. Multiple games are presented to the fan along with theability for the fan to utilize data from their ‘fantasy team games’ tofurther integrate with this ‘system’ or inventions by allowing the fanto match up their team roster with matchups in the system that areavailable—that either match their team players against the game systemor other players in their fantasy game leagues. Further objects,features, and advantages of the present invention over the prior artwill become apparent from the detailed description of the drawings thatfollows, when considered with the attached figures.

In certain embodiments of the invention, a user through a presentationdevice will access a remote activity server system. The user willdownload a platform that can be installed on the presentation device.The platform may include an application that provides for communicationwith the activity server system and the platform allows fordetermination whether a predetermined set of compliance criteria havebeen met prior to letting the user play a game that is associated withthe platform. The user downloads one or more games from the activityserver system on the presentation device. In one embodiment, the game isa skill-based game. The skill-based game application is configured tocommunicate with the platform to determine whether a set of compliancecriteria have been satisfied. If the compliance criteria are deemedsatisfied, the game application communicates with the activity serversystem. The activity server system may perform additional authenticationand/or determine whether compliance criteria has been met. The activityserver system will then serve game related data to the game applicationfor presentation to the user, allowing the user to play the game. Forexample, the activity server system may serve a set of predeterminedmatchups.

Embodiments of the invention may further include a system for presentinga skill-based game. The system may include a non-transitory storagemedium storing machine readable code and at least one activity serversystem comprising a processor configured to execute the machine readablecode and to communicate over a wide area network to a plurality ofpresentation computing devices and to receive information from theplurality of presentation computing devices. The system may also includea device storage system coupled to the activity server system storing(i) information concerning a plurality of users, each user identifiableby a user account, (ii) event data pertinent to a set of events andparticipants in the set of events. The machine-readable code, whenexecuted by the activity server system, causes performance of computerprocesses comprising:

-   -   serving over the wide area network a set of matchups of        participants along with associated an fixed-payout table based        on winning user matchup selections, to the presentation devices,        so as to cause the presentation devices to display the set of        matchups to the users;    -   receiving over the wide area network user roster data, from the        presentation devices, characterizing a set of user-selected        winners of the matchups made by the users;    -   updating the event data pertinent to participants in the actual        events; and    -   using the updated data to calculate and assign payoffs to the        users based on the fixed payoff odds.

The system may also include machine-readable code that when executed bythe activity server system, causes performance of computer processesfurther comprising:

-   -   in a matchup selection tool process, creating and modifying the        set of matchups based on a plurality of participants, and        transmitting the set of matchups to the server.

The matchup selection tool process may further include presentinginformation about the participants including expected fantasy points foreach participant for an upcoming event.

In another embodiment of the invention, the machine-readable code, whenexecuted by the activity server system, causes performance of computerprocesses further comprising:

-   -   in a risk assessment engine process:    -   determining a total possible payout based upon the user selected        winners for a matchup;    -   comparing the total possible payout with a predetermined        threshold; and    -   if the total possible payout exceeds the threshold, eliminating        the matchup from further play.

In a further embodiment of the invention, the received user roster dataincludes a user-selected hedge value by which a given user specifies aminimum number of a total number of matchup outcome selections made bythe given user that must be correct in order for the given user to win.

Embodiments of the system may include a graduated payout table and thesystem may further include machine-readable code, when executed by theactivity server system, causes performance of computer processes furthercomprising calculating the graduated payout table based on the fixedpayoff odds and serving over the wide area network a set of matchups ofparticipants along with associated fixed-payoff odds to the presentationdevices further comprises serving the graduated payout table.

The embodiments of the invention also include a computer-based methodfor providing suggested athlete matchups to a matchmaker organizing askill-based game. The computer based method implemented by a serversystem performing computer processes comprising:

-   -   receiving by a server system schedule information about a        plurality of games on a computing device from an information        source containing the schedule information;    -   determining by the server system the athletes expected to        compete in the plurality of games by accessing player        information for each team;    -   ranking by the server system the athletes using historical        fantasy point performance values for the athletes based at least        upon a calculated expected fantasy point performance values to        be scored by the athlete in a next game; and    -   causing display by the server system in a graphical user        interface identities of athletes according to their expected        fantasy point performance values wherein the graphical user        interface allows the matchmaker to select players to assign to a        matchup.

Embodiments of the computer-based method may include ranking for eachathlete wherein the computer processes further comprises:

-   -   providing by the server system a filter to the matchmaker for        filtering relevant historical fantasy point performance values        for the athlete from a set of historical fantasy point        performance values based upon a criteria set;    -   predicting, based on the historical fantasy point performance        values, by the server system an expected team fantasy point        performance value for the team of the athlete for the same game;        and    -   determining, by the server system, the expected fantasy        performance values of the athlete based on the filtered relevant        historical fantasy points performance values weighted by the        predicted team fantasy point performance value divided by a        historical team fantasy point performance value.

The criteria set for filtering the relevant historical fantasy pointperformance values may include at least one of number of previous gamesplayed, duration of play within the games, algorithm selection, venue,and characteristic of at least one member of the opposing team.Additionally, the method step of determining the expected fantasyperformance values of the athlete based on filtered relevant historicalfantasy points performance values includes using the predicted teamfantasy point performance value that has been filtered based on thecriteria set.

The computer processes may further comprise, after determining theexpected fantasy point performance values for the athletes, ordering theathletes according to expected fantasy point values. In certainembodiments, the athletes are filtered and displayed by expected fantasypoint total according to position.

The computer-based method may also provide for allowing a matchmaker toreview the list of athletes and expected fantasy point performancevalues and to select individual athletes to assign to a matchup andstoring the assignment of athletes to the matchup in a matchup datastore.

The described system may also include machine-readable code, whenexecuted by the activity server system, causes performance of computerprocesses further comprising:

-   -   in a computer-based risk assessment engine process,    -   querying the data store to identify users matchup selections        with a disproportionate number of users selecting one of two        participants in a matchup;    -   when such a matchup with an disproportionate number of users        selecting one of the two participants in a matchup has been        identified, determining whether the number exceeds a first        threshold;    -   if the number exceeds the first threshold, removing or modifying        the matchup from the set of matchups for all subsequent requests        for serving the set of matchups.

In certain embodiments of the invention, the machine-readable code, whenexecuted by the activity server system, causes performance of computerprocesses further comprising:

-   -   if the number exceeds the first threshold, determining whether a        potential payout exceeds a second threshold;    -   wherein removing the matchup from the set of matchups is subject        to the further condition that the payout exceeds the second        threshold.

In certain embodiments of the invention the machine-readable code, whenexecuted by the activity server system, causes performance of computerprocesses further comprising:

-   -   monitoring electronic information sources about mentions of        participants in the set of matchups and monitoring for keywords        including the keyword “injury” and if a mention of a participant        occurs on an electronic information and a keyboard is        identified, producing a graphical alert to an operator, the        graphical alert allowing the operator to remove one or more        matchups.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a flow chart that illustrates a method of presenting anactivity to a fan according to an exemplary embodiment of the invention;

FIGS. 2-10 illustrate a sequence of a presenting or playing in anactivity in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 2 shows an exemplary screen shot presented on a presentation deviceof a user showing a series of athlete matchups for selection by theuser;

FIG. 3 shows an exemplary screen shot presented on a presentation deviceof a user, when the user has selected a particular matchup, so that theuser can select an athlete;

FIG. 4 shows an exemplary screen shot presented to a user on the user'spresentation device where statistics are presented for each of theathletes in a selected matchup;

FIG. 5 shows a next matchup presented to the user on the user'spresentation device;

FIG. 6 shows a screen shot in which the computer code on thepresentation device directs the user to select at least one more pick inorder to complete a card;

FIG. 7 show screen shot of a next matchup in a set of 10 possiblematchups presented to the user on the user's presentation device;

FIG. 8 is a screen shot of a summary screen that shows the user'sselections for the matchups;

FIG. 9 shows a screen shot in which a user has elected to play at leastthe minimum number of matchups and can then select an amount to wager;

FIG. 10 shows an exemplary screen shoot of a confirmation pop-up that isgenerated on the user's presentation device confirming the user's wager;

FIG. 11 shows an environment for implementing the present inventivemethodology and systems in a networked environment;

FIGS. 12-14 illustrate a sequence for managing a fan's activity accountaccording to an exemplary embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 12 is a screen shot showing an illustrative welcome interfacedisplayed on the device of the user when the user downloads and launchesthe application on their presentation device;

FIG. 13 is a screen shot showing an illustrative account creationscreen, allowing a user to create an enter information about the user;

FIG. 14 is a screen shoot showing a user's account scree on thepresentation device of the user;

FIG. 15 shows an environment for implementing the invention including anactivity server system and various components;

FIG. 15A shows an exemplary activity server system including a riskassessment engine that is in communication with a data store managementserver and associated data store containing a database of current userroster selections;

FIG. 16 is a flow chart describing how the matchup tool and playerranking tool determine the expected performance for each athlete playingwithin a game from which matchups are selected;

FIG. 17 is an exemplary screen shot of a the matchup tool graphical userinterface that is presented to an operator that shows upcoming gamesalong with related information about the games;

FIG. 18 shows an exemplary screen shot of the matchup tool sorted byplayer wherein a match maker can select a to add a player to a match andcan view both historical and expected fantasy points for the player;

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF SPECIFIC EMBODIMENTS

Definitions. As used in this description and the accompanying claims,the following terms shall have the meanings indicated, unless thecontext otherwise requires:

The term “fan” and “user” means an individual playing the “fantasyskill-based game”.

The term “participant” refers to a “player” such as an “athlete” withinan event (e.g. sporting event such as professional football or otherevent etc.) on which the fantasy skill-based game is based and the termmay be used interchangeably with the term “athlete” and “player” whereappropriate.

A “set” includes at least one member.

The term “skill-based game” shall mean a game that allows a user to usea skill such as the selection of participants based upon statistics andpersonal knowledge prior to occurrence of a set of events, such assporting events, wherein, for the skill-based game, a determination willbe made based upon a set of preexisting scoring rules for scoring theone or more of the participants based upon actual performance in the setof events. As used herein, the term “skill-based game” shall beunderstood to operate in a manner as to be exempt from regulation underprovisions of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006(UIGEA), 31 U.S.C. §§ 5361-5366, as a “fantasy or simulation sports gameor educational game or contest in which (if the game or contest involvesa team or teams) no fantasy or simulation sports team is based on thecurrent membership of an actual team that is a member of an amateur orprofessional sports organization (as those terms are defined in section3701 of title 28)” and that additionally meet the enumerated criteria of31 U.S.C. § 5362(1)(E)(ix). Specifically, (I) All prizes and awardsoffered to winning participants are established and made known to theparticipants in advance of the game or contest and their value is notdetermined by the number of participants or the amount of any fees paidby those participants. (II) All winning outcomes reflect the relativeknowledge and skill of the participants and are determined predominantlyby accumulated statistical results of the performance of individuals(athletes in the case of sports events) in multiple real-world sportingor other events. (III) No winning outcome is based—(aa) on the score,point-spread, or any performance or performances of any singlereal-world team or any combination of such teams; or (bb) solely on anysingle performance of an individual athlete in any single real-worldsporting or other event.”.

The term “matchmaker” and “operator” may be used interchangeably to meana person or group that operates the system for presenting theskill-based game to a user. In certain contexts, the matchmaker refersto a person or group of people that are skilled at determining matchupsof players of equal sport skill that will likely produce similar fantasypoints during a given game. The matchmaker may receive matchupsuggestions from a matchup suggestion engine and may use a matchup toolfor making the final assigned matchups. The operator of the system forpresenting the skill-based game to the user, manages the activityserver, the platform and the distributed computer application forplaying the skill-based fantasy sports game.

A “computer process” is the performance of a described function in acomputer using computer hardware (such as a processor,field-programmable gate array or other electronic combinatorial logic,or similar device), which may be operating under control of software orfirmware or a combination of any of these or operating outside controlof any of the foregoing. All or part of the described function may beperformed by active or passive electronic components, such astransistors or resistors. In using the term “computer process” we do notnecessarily require a schedulable entity, or operation of a computerprogram or a part thereof, although, in some embodiments, a computerprocess may be implemented by such a schedulable entity, or operation ofa computer program or a part thereof. Furthermore, unless the contextotherwise requires, a “process” may be implemented using more than oneprocessor or more than one (single- or multi-processor) computer.

In the following description, numerous specific details are set forth inorder to provide a more thorough description of the present invention.It will be apparent, however, to one skilled in the art, that thepresent invention may be practiced without these specific details. Inother instances, well-known features have not been described in detailso as not to obscure the invention.

Embodiments of the invention comprise methods and systems for presentingskill-based, entertainment activities. In a preferred embodiment, thoseactivities comprise fantasy-sports type activities.

In general, according to one embodiment of the invention, a plurality offantasy sports “matchups” is generated. Each matchup pairs one or morecomponents (e.g. players) against one or more different components. Forexample, in a preferred embodiment, each matchup may pair one or morefirst sports event participants against one or more second sports eventparticipants.

A fan that enters the skill-based, sports-related entertainment activityis authenticated by a system before being authorized to participate.Authentication may include confirming the identity of the user and alsoinclude compliance with a set of compliance criteria. The compliancecriteria may include such information as the age of the user and thelocation of the user (e.g. the state or locality in which the user ispresently located). The compliance criteria may be configured to confirmthat access to the game is in compliance with all local and federallaws. Once authenticated, the fan may determine a number of matchups toplay (e.g., 4 through 10 matchups) and then pick either the first orsecond component(s) of each selected matchup. In the preferredembodiment, a fan thus selects a number of matchups and then pickseither the first or second participant(s) of each selected matchup.Further, the fan may be required to select a minimum number of matchups.These matchups are selected by the fan prior to the participantsundertaking their activity (e.g. playing in a professional sportingevent). The set of selected matchups and the selected participants forwinning the matchups shall be referred to as “user roster data”.

The outcomes of the matchups are determined with reference to the firstand second participants' actual performance in one or more actual sportsevent(s) according to a predetermined scoring criterion. For example inthe preferred embodiment, the first or second participant(s) with betterstatistics in predetermined, weighted, statistical categories (e.g. abetter fantasy sports score) in the one or more actual sporting event(s)may be determined as the “winner” of each matchup. The winners of thematchups are compared to the fan's picks. If the fan has made asufficient number of winning picks, then the fan is declared to be awinner of the activity. Thus, the present invention requires a fixedpayout table and each fan has an opportunity to win against—the system.This is in contrast to other games, such as pari-mutuel games, wherefans play against other fans and payouts are based upon the amount ofmoney that fans associate with their selections.

When the fan is a winner of an activity, the fan is awarded a prizeaccording to a predetermined paytable. For example, the fan may win acash, a reward, or other prize for correctly picking all of the selectedmatchups, or for correctly picking a predetermined number of matchupsfrom the selected matchups (e.g. for getting “close”).

One example of the invention will be described initially with referenceto FIG. 1. In the example below, reference is made to a skill-basedfantasy activity based on the actual game of football. However, it willbe appreciated by a person of ordinary skill that the activity may beapplied to any number of actual sports, games, or other competitions. Inaccordance with a first step S1, a set of fantasy matchups is created.

In a preferred embodiment, each matchup comprises a matchup of one ormore sports event participants. As one example, a matchup may comprise amatchup of two football players relative to their participation in oneor more football games that those players are playing in (the playersmay be playing in the same or different games). The matchups may matchplayers based upon various criteria, such as playing position, etc. Inone embodiment, the matchup may match two or more participants againsttwo or more other participants. For example, a matchup might pit a firstquarterback and running back pairing (the players may be on the sameteam or different teams and be playing the in the same or differentgames) against a second quarterback and running back pairing.Additionally, groups of more than two participants, such as three, four,or even more participants or players might be utilized in the matchups.Further, it is possible for the number of first participants in amatchup to be different than the number of second participants. Forexample, a matchup might pit a quarterback and a running back pairingagainst a second quarterback, a second running back, and wide receiver.In order for the fan to win, the fan must select the winning athlete ofa match based on the fantasy points that are scored during an event. Thefantasy point may include a handicap or biased value.

In accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention, theparticipants of each side of a matchup are preferably pre-selected in amanner that they are closely or evenly matched with reference to anexpected outcome. The matchups may be predetermined by a professionalodds-maker or an odds-maker in conjunction with an automated processbased upon statistical analysis.

As described below, the advantage of having evenly matched participantsin a given matchup is so that the activity, including the outcomethereof (e.g., whether the fan is a winner or loser), will require asignificant amount of skill or knowledge from the fan. First, the fanwill use their skill in attempting to pick those matchups, which mayappear to be uneven, as the fan is more likely to select the winner ofthose matchups. As to selected matchups which appear to be even, skillis involved in the player attempting to predict the winner of thematchup (e.g. if the matchup is uneven, such as where a very good playeris pitted against a very bad player, little skill is necessary inpredicting the winner; but as to matchups which are very even, greatskill is required to successfully select the winner (if the fan is toachieve a success rate of over 50% as would generally be expected fortruly even matchups)).

In a preferred embodiment of the invention, multiple matchups aregenerated for presentation to one or more fans participating in thefantasy sports activity. The total number of matchups, which aregenerated, may vary and depend, for example, on the number of matchups,which a fan must select in order to participate in the activity.Preferably, however, the minimum number of matchups that the fan mustselect is a sub-set of the total number of matchups from which the fanmay select. In this manner, part of the skill involved in the activityis the fan's determination of which matchups to play from the set ofmatchups that is presented to the fan.

Further, the matchups presented to the one or more fans, including thenumber of matchups presented, may vary during the course of the fantasysports activity. For example, matchups that involve one or moreparticipants that have already completed an actual game may be removedand be replaced with one or more matchups involving participants thatwill play an actual game in the future. Matchups may also be changedbased on a number of other criteria including for example, an injury toa participant, game cancellations, and a number of times a particularmatchup is selected by the fans, etc. For example, if a particularmatchup is selected by a certain percentage of fans, it may become clearthat this matchup is not considered to be an even match and therefore,this matchup may be removed from the list of available matchups.

In one preferred embodiment of the invention, 40 matchups are generated.Each matchup preferably uses different sets of participants (wherebyeach of the 40 matchups are different from one another). The set ofmatchups may be presented in a “card” type format (although the card maybe virtual). As described below, different cards (or sets of matchups)may be generated and presented to fans, including at different times.Also, as further described below, the number of matchups on a card maybe reduced or vary from time to time based on game, risk analysis,player injury or other factors effecting game play or rules. Aspreviously stated, if a believed even pre-determined matchup becomesun-evenly matched because of either a real (e.g. injury) or perceivedcondition (e.g. a great majority of fans select one participant of amatchup), the matchup may be removed from the pool of matchups availablefor future fans selection.

As described below, the matchups may be generated in a number of ways.For example, a suggestion engine may use defined criteria to create anumber of proposed matchups. The operator may use a matchup tool tocreate one or more final sets of matchups, such as by filtering andselecting final matchups from those generated by the suggestion engineor by generating other matchups.

In a second step S2 (see FIG. 1), a fan that wishes to participate inthe fantasy sports activity is authenticated by a system before beingauthorized to play and then the set of matchups is presented forselection by one or more fans.

For example, certain authentication of the fan (their identity,location, age, etc.) may be performed in order to allow the fan toaccess the activity and their user account and/or in order to complywith local, state or federal requirements. As described below, the fanmay use a mobile device, and the mobile device may be authenticated withthe system. The selections may be presented to the fan via a graphicaluser interface on the fan's mobile device. Alternatively, the fan mayalso use a desktop computer, laptop computer or other processor-baseddevice that can make network connections (e.g. connect with theInternet) or in other manners of participating in the fantasy sportsactivity.

Once a fan is authorized to participate in the activity, the set ofmatchups is presented to the fan. FIG. 2 illustrates one embodiment of agraphical user interface that may be used to present matchupinformation. In this example, the interface presents a plurality ofmatchups to the fan (the number of matchups and how they are illustratedmay depend, for example, on the interface, including the screen size ofthe like). The matchups may be presented in a card or list format forquick reference or viewing by the fan. In addition, however, the fan mayhave the option of selecting one or more of the plurality of matchups toform a user-selected roster. Upon selection of a matchup, the interfacemay present or display the matchup in further detail, such as in anenlarged and more informative format. In this example as shown in FIG.3, the illustrated matchup is between two players, T. Brady and B.Roethlisberger. Images of these players, their names, team affiliation,fantasy sports score and/or other information may be presented by theinterface to the fan. The interface may also allow the fan to optionallyview additional statistical information for each of the players in thematchup, as shown in FIG. 4. If a fan is permitted to select frommultiple matchups, similar matchup image or detail information may bepresented for each matchup.

In one embodiment, the interface may present each matchup in apredetermined order. For example, as shown in FIG. 2, the fan may viewthe first matchup between T. Brady and B. Roethlisberger. The fan, basedon his knowledge of each of the players in the matchup, may select thematchup by, for example, selecting one of the players in the matchup, orthe fan may skip the matchup and select other matchups. Thereafter, theinterface may present the next matchup as shown in FIG. 5, for example,between D. Brees and E. Manning. The fan may then select or skip thismatchup, and so continue through each of the available matchups.

Thus, in accordance with one embodiment of the invention, a fan selectsone or more matchups from the set of matchups. The fan then selects oneof the components or elements of the matchup (e.g. the first participantor participants in the matchup or the second participant or participantsin the matchup) as their selection for the predicted winner of thematchup. The fan's selections are received, as indicated in step S3 (seeFIG. 1). For example, a fan may select matchups 1, 11, 14 and 34 out offorty possible presented matchups these selected matchups and theselected winners are the user's roster data. Relative to matchup 1, thefan might select the first participant (where that participant maycomprise a single player or multiple players in the first position ofthat matchup). Relative to matchup 11, the fan might select the secondparticipant (such as a single player or multiple players in the secondposition of that matchup). As indicated below, a fan's selection ofmatchups and selection of participants from those matchups may bereceived in various manners.

As indicated below, various information or interfaces may be used todisplay information to the fan regarding the matchups and selections.For example, after a fan makes a selection, a summary may be presentedto the fan regarding the matchups they have elected to play and theirselections. For example, after the fan elected to play the D. Brees/E.Manning matchup illustrated in FIG. 5 and selected D. Brees, a summaryof that selection may be displayed with other elected matchups andselections, as illustrated in FIG. 6.

As described below, the fan may be required to play a minimum number ofmatchups from the set of presented matchups, such as four matchups of 40presented matchups. In that event, the fan may also be notified of thenumber of additional matchups they must play to enter the activity. Forexample, where the minimum number of matchups that must be played by afan is four and the fan has only elected three, the fan may beinstructed that they must elect at least one additional matchup, asillustrated in FIG. 6. Thereafter, the fan may review the next matchup(as illustrated in FIG. 7) and elect to play that or other matchups.Again, as illustrated in FIG. 8, if the fan elects to play anothermatchup, it may be added to the summary.

As also illustrated in FIG. 8, a summary of previous picks may beprovided along with the current matchup and associated fan selection.Further, as illustrated in FIG. 9, once the fan has elected to play theminimum number of matchups to participate in the activity, the fan maybe informed of the possibility of playing additional matchups. Asillustrated in FIG. 9, the fan has been informed that they have playedthe minimum number of 4 matchups and would be entitled to a 10 times(10×) prize if they correctly predict the outcomes of the matchups, butthe fan has also been informed that if they played one additionalmatchup, then they would be entitled to a prize of eighteen times (18×)if they correctly predict the outcomes of the matchups.

As described below, in a preferred embodiment of the invention, a fan isrequired to pay a fee to participate in the activity. In one embodiment,the fee may be based upon the number of cards that the fan plays.Further, the fan may be required to play a minimum number of matchups inorder to be eligible for a prize. For example, a fan may be required toplay a minimum number of four (4) matchups. The minimum number ofmatchups required may be set in advance by the operator and may also bechanged by the operator. Depending upon the number of matchups that thefan plays and then the number of those matchups in which the fancorrectly selects the winning outcome, the fan may be awarded a prize,such as based upon a prize table. The prize table may be presented invarious fashions. FIG. 9 illustrates one embodiment of a graphical userinterface in which prizes are displayed in relation to the number ofmatchups played by the fan, based upon the fan's entry fee. In all casesprize tables are presented so the fan knows in advance, what the prizesare prior to purchasing a ‘roster’ of user selected winners of matchups.

In one embodiment, there may be a minimum entry fee. There may also be amaximum entry fee, whereby the fan may select an entry fee for theircard that is between the minimum and the maximum. As detailed herein,the prizes may depend on a number of criteria and may vary, such asvarying based upon the amount of the fan's entry fee, the number ofselected matchups or the like. In the example illustrated in FIG. 9, thefan has elected to pay a $70 entry fee and the potential prize winningsif the fan is a winner have been displayed ($700 if the fan elects toplay the 4 selected matchups, or $1260 if the fan were to elect anadditional matchup and play 5 matchups, etc.). The fan's selection of anentry fee may be input and confirmed in various manners, such asillustrated in FIGS. 9 and 10. In a preferred embodiment, the fan may bepresented with a sliding selector, as shown in FIG. 9, which the fan maydrag between a minimum and maximum entry fee to select his or herdesired entry fee. The fan may drag the sliding selector using a touchscreen on a mobile device, or other suitable input device. As shown inFIG. 10, the fan may be asked to confirm the desired entry fee prior tosubmitting his or her selections.

It is noted that the authentication process including compliancecriteria described above may be repeated when the fan submits the entryfee. Thus, the location of the fan, a state of the device, and the likeas described above can be verified not only at login, but at each timethe fan pays an entry fee to participate in the fantasy sports activity.This includes authentication of the player information upon withdrawalof any winnings from their account balance. For example, there arepresently two states that have an age requirement of 19 for a user/fanto participate in on-line fantasy sport games. The communication betweenthe presentation device of the fan and the activity server system andthe authentication process will be further described with respect toFIG. 13. In a step S4, the outcome of the matchups are determined andcompared to the fan's selections to determine the outcome of theactivity. In accordance with a preferred embodiment of the invention,scores are assigned to the participants of each matchup. In a preferredembodiment, those scores are based upon objective criteria, which relateto the relevant sports event and cannot be manipulated by the fan.

For example, relative to football players, each player may be assigned ascore based upon the players statistics from their play in a footballgame using the following points schedule shown in Table 1 below:

TABLE 1 Example Fantasy Sports Scoring Offense Passing Yards:  1 pointper 25 yards passing Passing Touchdowns:  4 points Interceptions: −2points Rushing Yards:  1 point per 10 yards Receiving Touchdowns:  6points Receiving Yards:  1 point per 10 yards Receiving Touchdowns:  6points Fumble Recovered for a Touchdown:  6 points 2-Point Conversions: 2 points Fumbles Lost: −2 points Kicking PAT Made:  1 point FG Made(0-49 yards):  3 points FG Made (50+ yards):  5 points Defense Sacks:  1point Interceptions:  2 points Fumbles Recovered:  2 points Safeties:  2points Defensive Touchdowns:  6 points Kick and Punt Return Touchdowns: 6 Points Points Allowed (0): 10 points Points Allowed (1-6):  7 pointsPoints Allowed (7-13):  4 points Points Allowed (14-20):  1 point PointsAllowed (21-27):  0 points Points Allowed (28-34): −1 points PointsAllowed (35+): −4 points

It should be understood by one of ordinary skill in the art that otherfantasy point scoring systems may be used without deviating from theintended scope of the invention. Additionally, fantasy point scoring isnot limited simply to football, but may be for any sport. For example,in the case of basketball fantasy scoring points may include thefollowing: 3 pt basket equals 3 fantasy points, 2 pt basket equal 2fantasy points, steal equal 1 fantasy point, rebound equal 1 fantasypoint etc.

In the example fantasy sports scoring table above, fractional points maybe awarded, the points may rounded to the nearest point, or the pointsmay be truncated to obtain the final score for the player. Similar pointschedules for other sports or events may also be used.

As one example, suppose one of the matchups selected by a fan pitsquarterback A against wide receiver B. In this example, quarterback Aparticipates in a game and has 275 yards passing, 2 passing touchdowns,1 interception, and 1 fumble lost. Based on quarterback A's performancein the game, quarterback A is assigned a fantasy score. If the pointschedule set forth in Table 1 is used, quarterback A scores 11 pointsfor 275 yards passing, 8 points for 2 passing touchdowns, −2 points for1 interception, and −2 points for 1 fumble lost. Thus, quarterback A'soverall fantasy score is 15 for his performance in the game.

Next, suppose that wide receiver B participates in a game and has 130receiving yards, 1 receiving touchdowns, and loses 1 fumble. Based onwide receiver B's performance in the game, wide receiver B is assigned afantasy score. If the point schedule set forth in Table 1 is used, widereceiver B scores 13 points for 130 receiving yards, 6 points for 1receiving touchdown, and −2 points for 1 fumble lost. Thus, widereceiver B's overall fantasy score is 17 for his performance in thegame.

The fantasy scores of quarterback A and wide receiver B are thencompared to determine the winner of the matchup. In the above example,quarterback A has a fantasy score of 15, while wide receiver B has afantasy score of 17. Thus, wide receiver B would be declared the winnerof the matchup.

Thus, each participant (or group of participants if group scoring isused) is assigned a score based upon their performance in the one ormore relevant sports events. The scores of participants in a matchup arecompared to one another, where the participant(s) with the highest scoreare declared the winner.

As explained previously, players in a matchup may not necessarily playin the same game. Thus, in the above example, the game in whichquarterback A plays may be played at a different time than the game inwhich wide receiver B plays. Thus, the outcome of the matchup is notdetermined until after the completion of the game(s) in which theparticipants in the matchup play.

Once games for each of the participants in the selected matchups arecomplete, and the winners of each of the matchups are determined, thosewinners are compared to the fan's selections (user roster data). In oneembodiment, a fan, based upon his or her ability to select matchups andjudge the performance of the participants in the selected matchups, isrequired to correctly pick a certain number of winners of the matchupsthey have selected or played in order to be entitled to a prize.

For example, set forth below in Table 2 is an example prize table inaccordance with one embodiment of the invention. As indicated in thistable, if a fan elects to select or play four matchups and they pick thewinner of all four matchups, then the fan is awarded an amount equal to10 times (10×) the amount of their entry fee. On the other hand, if thefan elects to select or play five matchups and the fan picks the winnerof all five matchups, then the fan is awarded an amount equal to 18times (18×) the amount of their entry fee. While in one embodiment a fanmay be required to correctly pick the winner of all of their selectedmatchups, other prize tables might award prizes when the fan picks thewinner of some, but not all, of the selected matchups.

TABLE 2 Example Prize Table Matchup Outcomes Correctly Matchups PlayedPredicted Prize 4 4  10x Entry Fee 5 5  18x Entry Fee 6 6  35x Entry Fee7 7  70x Entry Fee 8 8 125x Entry Fee 9 9 250x Entry Fee 10  10  500xEntry Fee

Additional aspects of the invention will now be described. First, as oneof ordinary skill will appreciate, the invention may be applied to anykind of event. For example, the invention may be applied to sportsevents such as football, baseball, basketball, soccer, rugby, hockey,horse or dog racing, automobile racing or any other type of competition(chess, ping-pong, bowling and so on). Further, the participants of thematchups can be players or other participants of those events, or groupsof participants in those events.

The outcome of the matchup may be determined relative to one sportsevent or multiple sports events. For example, a matchup might pitquarterback A who is playing for team A in a game between teams A and Bagainst quarterback C who is playing for team C in a game between teamsC and D (e.g. the matchup need not be in relation to participants whoare competing against one another in the same sports event). The matchupmight relate to more than one sports event. For example, the matchupmight pit quarterback A against quarterback B in relation to an entireseason (whereby the outcome of the matchup is not known, and the outcomeof the activity cannot be determined, until the season ends).

As also described in more detail below, while the matchup may pit oneplayer against another player or one group of players against anothergroup of players, other matchups may be utilized. For example, onematchup may challenge a fan to predict the performance of a singleparticipant's ability to achieve a predetermined fantasy point total, asdescribed below.

In one embodiment of the invention, the operator of the activity mayrequire fans to enter the activity by a predetermined time. For example,matchups might pit NFL players against one another relative to weeklyNFL games occurring between Thursday and Monday. The operator may thusrequire that fans enter the activity before the start of the first gameon Thursday in order to participate in the activity, or at least beforethe first game involving one of the participants in the set of matchupsthat are being presented to the fan for selection. Thus, thecomputer-based system such as the activity server referred to below withrespect to FIG. 15 will stop participation of an activity and will notaccept entry into the activity if the user submits an entry of matchupselectronically from the user's presentation device (presentation deviceof the fan 151 in FIG. 15).

In this regard, it is noted that the operator may present different setsof matchups to different fans. First, different sets of matchups mightbe presented at different times. For example, relative a weekly NFLschedule, a first set or card of 40 matchups, which includesparticipants playing in Thursday night football games, might bepresented to fans before the Thursday night football games. However,after the Thursday night football games begin, a second set or card of40 matchups may be presented to fans, which matchups includeparticipants playing in Saturday, Sunday and Monday games. As a result,the activity server includes a clock mechanism and associates each ofthe matchups with time after which the matchup is no longer valid. Thematchup suggestion engine 158 will remove the time barred matchups fromthe matchups being distributed to a fan's presentation device and mayprovide alternative matchups to the fan's presentation device that havenot been time-barred.

In addition, matchups might be changed based upon participant injury orother factors. For example, a first set of matchups might include amatchup between players A and B. Once it is determined that player A isinjured, that matchup may be removed from the card. For example, a riskassessment engine 159 in FIG. 15 can cancel matchups that have beenpreviously selected by an operator and stored in a data store(predetermined matchups 165). These cancelled matchups will not beprovided to the matchup suggestion engine 158 and will not be passedthrough to the presentation device of the fan. If a fan has alreadyselected the matchup that is removed, the fan may be notified via, forexample, a text message to his or her mobile device and/or email (e.g.the presentation device of the fan). The fan may then have theopportunity to update his or her selected matchups. The removed matchupmight be replaced on the card with a new matchup, or fans might then bepermitted to select from the remaining matchups on the card (e.g. atthat point the card may only include 39 matchups).

In some cases, a matchup may need to be removed from a card after fanshave already entered the activity. In one embodiment, if removal of oneor more matchups causes the fan's selected matchups to number less thanthe minimum matchups in play, then the fan's card may be voided and thefan's entry fee may be refunded. The minimum number of matchups may varydepending on the sport or activity on which the fantasy game is based,but in general, the minimum number of matchups will be at least 3.However, if removal of one or more matchups causes the fan to still haveat least the minimum number of matchups in play, then the card may betreated as having been played with that number of matchups originally.For example, a fan might select 5 matchups from a card of 40 matchups.As a result of cancellation of a game due to weather, one of thematchups the fan had selected was taken out of play, leaving the fanwith 4 matchups in play. In that event, the results of those 4 matchupsmay be evaluated and the fan may be paid prizes based upon 4 matchupsinstead of the originally selected 5 matchups. Of course, other prizesmight be awarded in such a situation (for example, in that situation,the fan might be awarded the prize based upon 5 matchups).

As indicated, in order to ensure that the result or outcome of correctlypicking the result of a matchup requires a substantial amount of skillfrom the fan, each matchup is preferably generated so that the pairingsare generally equal or equally weighted, such as pairing equally matchedplayers. In other words, players with similar skill or ability to playthe sports event are preferably matched in the matchups. Further, to addmore excitement to the fantasy sports activity for the fan, it ispreferable that well-known or popular players are included in thematchups.

One embodiment of the invention comprises a matchup tool that assists inthe creation of the matchups. This matchup tool (see 163 in FIG. 15)aids an operator in generating matchups and is part of the game creationand management system. For example, the matchup tool 163 may aid theoperator in creating matchups by providing information that would leadto the creation of matchups to the operator between players or groups ofplayers where the expected outcome of the matchup is nearly equal.

For example, the matchup tool 163 may compare available player fantasyscores, player statistics, power rankings, and other available metricsto determine a suggested matchup between two evenly ranked players. Asindicated, in one example of the invention, the outcome of a matchup isdetermined by a performance score assigned to the players in the matchup(which performance score is determined by each player's performanceduring a sports event). As such, the matchup tool may look at historicalscores for those players as a guide to project the probable scores ofthose players in a new matchup. Other factors might also be consideredthat may modify the predicted score of the player(s). These otherfactors affecting a player's projected performance (such as fantasyscore for the upcoming week) may include the location of the game beingplayed (e.g. whether a player is on a home or an away team), forecastedweather, strength of the scheduled opponent, injuries to teammates, andother information about a player as may be available in variouspublished news feeds. The matchup tool may further weigh playerpopularity to suggest matchups using the most popular players to theoperator.

As one example, Player A might have a historical score average of 10.6and Player B might have a historical score average of 10.7. However, inthe next round of games, Player A might be playing a very strongopponent in bad weather and Player B might be playing an easy opponentin good weather, thus causing the expected scores to be adjusted, suchas to Player A of 8 and Player B of 12. In such a case, this matchup maybe viewed as sufficiently unequal that it is not used.

In one embodiment, the matchup tool may specify a plurality of matchupsof individual player-pair suggestions or paired groupings of playersthat the operator may choose from in order to reduce the risk of theoperator manually specifying unbalanced matchups. Further, the matchuptool may help to speed up matchup selection by the operator.

The matchup tool may include or use stored information (see 161 below inFIG. 15), such as information regarding players (including name,performance data, team data, etc.), sports event information (such aslocation of games, dates, team matchups) and the like in order togenerate proposed matchups. The matchup tool 163 may generate a largenumber of matchups and then, based upon certain criteria such as amaximum score or value spread, eliminate generated matchups from beingpresented to the operator for selection (i.e. the matchup tool maygenerate a large number of matchup permutations and then remove thosethat are outside of certain baseline criteria). The operator might thenselect one or more sets of matchups from those generated by the matchuptool wherein the selected matchups are stored in a memory location (seeFIG. 15 165).

The matchup tool 163 further enables the operator to ensure balancedmatchups in the matchup pairings. The matchup tool interface provides alist of potential matchup candidate players as shown in FIG. 18. Theinterface may include a graphical representation of each of the listedcandidate players. For each candidate player, the interface may providevisual comparisons of past fantasy performances, statistics, nextopponent, and other parameters to aid the operator in selecting evenlybalanced matchups. The interface provides means for the operator toquickly organize candidate players into matchups. For example, whenimplemented on a desktop or laptop computer, a mobile device, or thelike, the operator may select and a drag candidate players into matchuppositions. Using the matchup tool, the operator may select and finalizeeach of the matchups to be presented to the fan.

The system may also include a player-ranking tool as shown in FIGS. 17and 18 that may be part of the matchup tool. FIG. 17 shows an exemplaryscreen shot of the matchup tool where the matchmaker selects a set ofgames over a period of time for making matches. The games are displayedin a column 1700 and the graphical user interface indicates the home1730 and away 1710 teams and may provide other information such as theteam name 1720. The matchmaker may then request display of the playersfor the selected games as shown in FIG. 18 The player-ranking tool mayrank each player according to an expected fantasy point total 1800 thatis composed of historical performance 1830 and predicted gameperformance. The player-ranking tool operates according to the followingmethodology as shown in FIG. 16. First, the historical performancevalues are filtered in accordance with the preferences of the operatorto determine a historical fantasy point total for the athlete (i.e.player) being evaluated 1600. The filtering of the historical data maybe based upon a number of factors including duration. The fantasy pointtotal may be an average of fantasy points for a previous number of games(e.g. 20, 5, 2 etc.). Another filter that may be applied is a selectionof an algorithm for calculating the fantasy points total. In oneembodiment, a median algorithm is used to remove skew from statisticaloutliers. In another embodiment, an average algorithm is used. Anotherfilter may be based upon a threshold condition. The fantasy points for aplayer may be limited to games in which the player played a minimumnumber of minutes or a percentage of the game (e.g. 60%, 70% etc.). Thehistorical fantasy points may also be filtered according to venue sothat average or median fantasy points over a set of games are based onwhether the games are played at home or away. The historical fantasypoints may also be filtered according to the opposition. For example, inbaseball the historical information for a player, can be filtered inaccordance with the pitcher handedness, such that the player'sperformance versus a right or left handed pitcher may be evaluated. Thisis especially useful in making matchups for upcoming games in which theopposing pitcher is known and therefore the handedness of the pitchercan be taken into account. Each of these factors affects the historicalperformance numbers.

The player-rating is then adjusted based upon the expected fantasypoints for the upcoming game so that the player-rating is a composite ofthe historical fantasy points rating (average/median per game) and theexpected fantasy points for an upcoming game. The expected fantasypoints for a player may be calculated based upon the expected teamperformance for that same game 1610. The algorithm assumes a strongcorrelation between the performance of a player and that of the team.For example, if an NBA team is expected to score 10% more team pointsthan usual, the methodology assumes that the individual player willscore 10% more points and therefore, will have 10% more fantasy pointsthan the historical average/median for that player.

In order to calculate the expected fantasy points, the calculatedhistorical fantasy points are weighted by the athlete's predicted teamscore (see 1840 in FIG. 18) divided by the historical team score 1620.

${FPTS}_{expected} = {{FPTS}_{historical}\left\lbrack \frac{{TeamScore}_{expected}}{{TeamScore}_{historical}} \right\rbrack}$

One method for calculating the expected team score begins with thepublished Las Vegas Totals and Point Spreads. For example, if thebookmaker odds predict that 200 points will be scored in an NBA game andthat the Point Spread is −6 points for the athlete's team, then theexpected team score for our athlete is [200−(−6)] *0.5=103

${TeamScore}_{expected} = {\quad{\left\lbrack \frac{{GameScore}_{total} - {PointSpread}}{2} \right\rbrack = {\left\lbrack \frac{200 - \left( {- 6} \right)}{2} \right\rbrack = 103}}}$

Total game score and point spread are either entered into the system bythe operators, or they are imported from a bookmaking site or API. Thehistorical team score is also calculated. There are several ways tocalculate the historical team score. In one embodiment, the average ofall expected team scores for all of the players in the player rankingtool list of players. Preferably, the Historical Team Score iscalculated from the same set of games that are used to calculate theathlete's fantasy points in the column for last 20 games played.

The above-described methodology for the player-ranking tool provides amatchmaker with a list of players ordered as closely as possible totheir game day performances. Thus, in this embodiment, thePlayer-Ranking Tool allows match makers to create matchups quickly andeasily. As shown in FIG. 18, players 1810 and 1820 both have expectedfantasy points of 14.15 and thus, would make a good matchup. As anadjunct, the player-ranking tool can also be used for warning thematchmakers when creating an unevenly matched matchup and presentingsuggested matchup cards to the matchmaker. The player-ranking tool isdesigned to assist the matchmaker in making matches and removing matchesfrom play. Thus, the matchmaker can overrule any suggestions from theplayer-ranking tool.

Other types of activities may be offered in accordance with theinvention. One type of activity is a round-robin activity. Whenconsidering a set of matchups, a fan might feel particularly confidentabout a certain set of matchups. For example, a fan might like 5particular matchups and thus the fan might play a card of all 5matchups.

In accordance with the invention, however, the fan might be offered thechance to still be a winner of the activity if the fan only correctlyselects the winner of 4 of the 5 matchups. For example, the fan may beoffered “insurance” against one wrong pick, such that the fan still winsa prize if they pick any combination of 4 of the 5 matchups correctly.The fan may be required to place an additional entry fee (or insurancefee) to play the activity this way and the prizes may be less. Forexample, if a fan correctly picks the winners of all 5 matchups, the fanmight be paid a prize of 18× their entry fee, but if the fan only picks4 of the 5 winners, then they might only be paid a lower prize basedupon their entry fee (or insurance fee). This feature may automaticallybe implemented, whereby when a fan elects a “pick 4 of 5” option, thesystem is configured to evaluate all combinations of the various matchupresults to determine if any combination of 4 of the fan's 5 selectionswere correct. Of course, other options might be provided, such as a“pick 3 of 5”, “pick 5 of 6” or other combinations of matchups.

As indicated above, in one embodiment matchups may be presented by thegaming engine 158 (see FIG. 15) where the fan simply attempts tocorrectly pick the winner of the matchup based upon even or head-to-headscoring. However, in other embodiments, the matchups could include a“spread” or offset which attempts to equalize the outcome of thematchup. For example, the matchup suggestion engine might predict afantasy score of 10 for Player A and 12 for Player B. A matchup mightthus be generated as “Player A” vs. “Player B—2” by the matchupsuggestions engine 159 as shown in FIG. 15.

In one embodiment, the fan may be challenged to project the performanceof a single participant's ability to achieve a predetermined fantasypoint total. Here, the components or elements of the matchup might begenerated as an “over” or “under” selection. For example, Player A mightbe predicted to achieve a fantasy score of 14 points in his next game. Amatchup might be presented as “Player A Under 14” vs. “Player A Over14”, whereby the fan must attempt to predict whether Player A will scoreover or under the identified score.

In another game variation, an entire subset of a team could be treatedas an athlete. For example, football special teams may be comparedagainst one another wherein the total fantasy points for one specialteam may be compared against the fantasy points of a second specialteam. Other team subsets could also be combined together, for example,the forwards for a first basketball team could be matched against theforwards for a second basketball team.

In yet another game variation, splits may be added wherein fantasypoints are only collected during a subset of an entire game. The subsetscould be based on boundaries such as periods, quarters, halves etc. Eachside of a matchup could have a different split. For example: Splitmatchup for first quarter example: “T. Brady QB in Q1 vs R. Wilson QB inQ1”. Split matchup for one athlete example: “T. Brady QB in H1 vs T.Brady QB in H2”. Split matchup with point spread: “T. Brady QB −2.5 inQ4 vs R. Wilson QB +2.5 in Q4”.

Additionally, the fantasy point calculations may be according tostandard practices or may vary in accordance with that of the operator.Alternative point scoring (APS) totals may be used for matchups. Forexample:

APS matchup “T. Brady QB FPTS from Rushing Yards vs R. Wilson QB FPTSfrom Rushing Yards”.

APS with point spread example: “T. Brady QB FPTS from Rushing Yards +5.5vs R. Wilson QB FPTS from Rushing Yards −5.5”.APS for players on same team example: “T. Brady QB FPTS from PassingYards vs R. Gronkowski TE FPTS from Receiving Yards”.APS with DST, point spread, and splits example: “NE DST FPTS from Sacksin H1 +1.5 vs SEA DST FPTS from Sacks in H1 −1.5”.APS with totals example for T. Brady QB FPTS from Passing Yards:“Greater Than 14.5 FPTS vs Less Than 14.5 FPTS”.

In another variation, there may be multi-player matchups. A multi-playermatchup introduces a matchup in which either or both sides are made upof several athletes whose fantasy points are summed together forcomparison with the fantasy points of the other side. Each side of amulti-matchup can have different numbers of athletes.

An Example Multi-Matchup would be: “T. Brady QB, R. Gronkowski TE, NEDST (Defensive Special Teams) vs R. Wilson QB, L. Willson TE, S.Hauschka K, SEA DST (Defensive Special Teams)”

As indicated above, an advantage of the invention is that thedetermination of whether the fan is a winner or loser is based solelyupon the fan's selections and not those of other fans. In some wageringand non-wagering events, the winner or winners of the events aredetermined by comparing the player's results. For example, in someexisting games or events, a prize might be awarded to the one or moreplayers who correctly predict the most winners of a set of events. Inthis situation, a determination of whether a player wins or loses theevent is not determined solely by how many winners that player predicts,but also how many winners other players correctly predict. On the otherhand, in accordance with the present invention, the determination ofwhether the fan is a winner or loser is measured solely by the fan'sselections. The present activity is not pari-mutuel in nature.Pari-mutuel activities have the significant drawback that the size ofthe prize that is awarded to a winner is determined by the size of theprize pool and the number of winners. For example, in a pari-mutuelevent, if only 2 players entered and each paid a $1 entry fee, then themaximum prize award would be $2. Further, the size of the winning prizeis based upon the number of winners. For example, an event mightindicate that a participant is a winner if they select 3 correctoutcomes. However, 20 participants might all select all 3 correctoutcomes, such that there are 20 winners. If the prize pool was $100,each of those 20 winners would then only be awarded $100/20, or $5.Contrary to this common prize award configuration, in accordance withthe present invention a fan is paid a fixed prize if they achievewinning criteria (e.g. the size of the prize does not vary, such asbased upon whether other fans also met the winning criteria).

Another difference between the present invention and a pari-mutuel typeevent is the exposure to the operator. In a pari-mutuel event, themaximum exposure to the operator is limited because the prize pool isfixed (e.g. the number of winners only changes each winner's share ofthe prize pool and does not increase the size of the pool or amount thatthe operator must pay out). However, in accordance with the invention,the amount of prizes that the operator must pay out increases as thenumber of winning fans increases. Thus, a risk assessment engine is usedto aid in ensuring that: (1) matchups or combinations thereof aregenerally equal in weight and (2) that entry fees for the play ofmatchups, which are being selected unequally, are reduced or eliminated.Risk assessment is based on monitoring the ration of potential payoutsat any given time to the correlation of those payouts.

In accordance with one embodiment of the invention, certain matchups orcards may be removed from play based upon an evaluation of the real-timereceipt of entries from fans. Evaluation of risk and removal of matchupsoccurs in the risk assessment engine 162 (FIG. 15). For example, a cardmay offer 40 matchups. The first 100 entries received from fans may allinclude the selection of matchups 1, 17 and 20, where each fan hasselected player A as the predicted winner of the matchup. In that event,the risk engine may determine that the operator may have a high risk ofloss/payout (given the paytable of prizes), that the card or at leastmatchups 1, 17 and/or 20 should be removed. Likewise, the riskassessment engine might determine that in certain matchups the number offans who are selecting opposing participant is nearly equal, but theaggregate fees of the fans selecting certain participants is much higherthan for the other participant. Again, in view of this skewed activity,the risk assessment engine 162 may determine that certain cards ormatchups should be removed from further play. For example, out of a cardof 40 matchups, 200 players might select the first participant for eachof matchups 1, 8, 9 and 22 and 200 players might select the secondparticipant for each of those same matchups. However, the 200 playersselecting the first participant might have collectively paid entry feesof $2000, while the other 200 players selecting the second participantin those matchups might have paid entry fees of $20,000. In thissubstantially uneven distribution of fees, the risk engine might removethe card or matchups 1, 8, 9 and 22 from that card. Preferably, the riskassessment engine 162 evaluates entries by fans on a real time basis,collating and collecting the matchup selections and fees to therebyconstantly analyze the weighting of selections and fees. Thresholds maybe programmed or set in the risk engine so that the risk engineautomatically makes matchup or card adjustments when thresholds are hit,such as to protect the operator from unjustifiably high risks of loss.

The risk assessment engine 162 may include a graphical user interface169 (see FIG. 15A) that allows an operator to view a listing ofcorrelated roster payouts (wherein a roster is the selection by a userof a pre-defined number of matchups and selected winners for thosematchups) and roster counts ordered by potential payout amount todetermine the riskiest combinations, which would be presented at the topof a listing in the graphical user interface. As indicated above therisk assessment engine GUI 169 may be local to the risk assessmentengine 162 or a client application may be available to an operator suchthat the GUI 169 is presented remotely on the presentation device of theoperator and the operator can remotely monitor the game and any riskdetermined by the risk assessment engine 162. The risk assessment engine162 may include a set of predefined thresholds or the operator may set athreshold value for each number of picks of potential payout maximumsand roster count maximums. In one embodiment of the invention, the riskassessment engine is configured to highlight and present selectiongroups above a threshold in the graphical user interface with someindicia, such as highlighting the selection group in red. The riskassessment engine may also generate alerts, which can be auditory or maygenerate an e-mail notification to one or more operators. Depending uponthe configuration by the operator, the risk assessment engine mayautomatically close individual matchups when a threshold level has beenmet without requiring authorization from an operator. The thresholds maybe determined at the discretion of the operator, but will be based atleast in part on an expected number of users submitting rosters alongwith historical information concerning payouts.

As shown in FIG. 15A, the roster selections by user playing the fantasysports game (user roster data) are sent from the presentation device ofthe user through the network connection 154 between the application 153and the gaming engine 158. The data received by the gaming engine willinclude the ID number for the user, a description of the selected rosterincluding the number of picks, whether the picks include a hedge, and anarray of selections for each matchup within the roster. Thus, the arraywill include a pointer to the selected athlete in each matchup selectedby the user. Additionally, other parameters may be communicated when theroster selections are transmitted by the application 152 running on thepresentation device of the user 151, including the location in which thepresentation device is located. On a periodic basis or at the request ofan operator, the risk assessment engine queries the data storemanagement server 167 using a database query API to query the data storeof user roster selections. The database of the data store 168 containsall of the currently active user roster selections for all of the usersplaying the fantasy game. The API query will produce a report to therisk assessment engine. For example, the database query may produce areport that indicates the N-riskiest selections in terms of overallpossible payout disparity for matchups. It should be recognized thatother database searches may be used to provide information concerningrisk to the risk assessment engine. The risk assessment engine willreceive the results of the database query in the form of a report, suchas a data file in a predefined format in conformity with the databaseAPI. The risk assessment engine parses the report and compares theentries within the report to a threshold value that has either beenpreset or set by an operator. For example, the threshold could be basedon a percentages of disparity, such as 80% of the users betting on oneathlete or the threshold could be in the disparity of the total amountbet, such that a payout that included a matchup may exceed $500,000.Again, other thresholds can be established based upon the risk withoutdeviating from the intended scope of the invention. It should berecognized by one or ordinary skill in the art that the data-base anddata management server may operate as part of the activity server systemor may be outside of the activity server system. Additionally, the datastore management server may periodically push the results of a pre-setnumber of database queries to the risk assessment engine within the riskassessment engine needing to query the data store management server 167.

In one embodiment of the invention, matchups may be presented on acustomized basis to fans. Customization of matchups occurs in a matchupsuggestion engine 159 that takes into account Fan Account Informationstored in a datastore 157. For example, while a plurality of fans may bepresented with the same card or set of matchups, the order of thematchups or how the matchups are presented might be customized. As oneexample, the first presented matchup might be selected based upon thelocation of the fan or based upon a fan's profile. If the matchupsinclude a matchup involving Drew Brees, fans who are located inLouisiana or identify themselves as New Orleans Saints fans may bepresented with a set of matchups where the first matchup is the matchupinvolving Drew Brees. Thus, the order or configuration of the matchupsor even the matchups in the set of matchups might vary based upongeographic region, time of year, rankings of players or teams, fan inputor profile or other criteria. In addition, the graphical presentation ofthe matchups might be changed based upon such criteria.

The invention may be implemented in various manners, including invarious environments. In one embodiment, the fantasy-sports typeactivity is implemented in a computing environment. One embodiment ofsuch an environment is illustrated in FIG. 11. As illustrated, a system20 comprises one or more presentation devices 22 and at least oneactivity management server 24. The presentation devices 22 may bededicated/special purpose devices or may be general purpose devices.Preferably, the presentation devices 22 include at least one videodisplay 28 capable of displaying activity information, at least oneinput device 30, and at least one communication interface. Thepresentation device may also be embodied in a game console, smarttelevision, kiosks, gaming tables, gaming tablets or other deviceconfigured to communicate with the activity server system.

The presentation device 22 might comprise, for example, a desktopcomputer 32, a telephone (including cellular, wireless or wiredtelephones) or smart phone 34 (such as an iPhone® or Android® device), alaptop or notebook computer 36, tablets or various other devices.

The input device 30 might comprise, for example, a keyboard, mouse,joystick, touch-screen, button(s), track-balls or other devices nowknown or later configured and which are capable of receiving input froma fan. The communication interface is preferably configured to permitinformation or data to be exchanged from one or more remote device orlocations with the presentation device 22. The one or more communicationinterface might support wired or wireless communications using variousprotocols. For example, if the presentation device 22 is a phone or PDA,the communications might be by 3G, 4G, IMT, GSM or the like. If thepresentation device 22 is a desktop computer, the communications mightbe by TCP/IP or the like. Of course, other protocols may be used such asBluetooth, 802.11xx and the like.

It will be appreciated that the presentation device 22 may include othercomponents. For example, the presentation device 22 may include a mainprocessor, a video and/or audio processor, input and output ports or thelike.

In one embodiment, the presentation device 22 includes an applicationand a platform that have been downloaded from the activity server systemor other server associated with the system. As described below, theapplication preferably aids in presentation of the activity, includingby causing activity information to be displayed to the fan and forreceiving input from the fan.

For example, the application preferably implements a user interface thatallows the fan to navigate through a list of graphically displayedmatchups. In one embodiment, the fan may select one of the two playersof a matchup and have the next matchup presented on the display via asingle touch swipe or fling gesture to a touch-sensitive display orother input device of their presentation device 22.

For example, in one embodiment, the application interface displays thefirst and second player on left and right sides of a screen,respectively. As shown in FIG. 3, the fan may swipe towards one of thetwo players. When the gesture of swiping of flinging towards one of theplayers is entered by the fan, the mobile client both selects the playerand moves on to the next matchup. Alternatively, the fan might swipe upor down to move from the displayed matchup to another matchup withoutselecting either of the players. Thus, the fan may easily select andnavigate the various presented matchups.

The application may further include visual indicators to aid the user inbeing confident that his or her intended action is accomplished. Theseaids include movement of the graphics displayed in coordination with thefan's touch gesture, highlighting selected portions of the graphicsdisplayed to indicate an action, or other visual indicators that anyplayer has been selected.

Other mobile interfaces may also be possible. For example, the mobiledevice may include a microphone and a voice recognition feature, whichmay allow the fan to select matchups and pick winners by speaking to themobile device (or the device may be configured to receive other inputs,such as gestures, etc.). Further, although the presentation device hasbeen described above as being a mobile device, the presentation devicecould also include a laptop or desktop computer, a “smart” TV, or otherdevice (e.g. game console or TV console).

The at least one activity management server 24 is preferably one or moredevices which are configured to receive a request for fan participationin an activity and to present activity information to the fan. In apreferred embodiment, the activity management server 24 comprises one ormore servers and can thus, be considered an activity system (see 150 inFIG. 15). In such an embodiment, the activity management server 24 mightcomprise a server, which is configured as a computing device, which hasa processor for executing instructions, a memory for storing data suchas instructions, and at least one communication interface for forming acommunication link to at least one presentation device 22. In oneembodiment, the activity management server 24 might comprise or be incommunication with one or more mass data storage devices, such as one ormore hard drives or the like. The server 24 may store information suchas player statistics, sports event schedules, images of players, dataregarding matchups, fan information (as disclosed below, a fan maycreate an account which identifies the fan and provides contactinformation and the like), and other information. The server 24 mightalso be configured to communicate with other devices to obtain suchinformation, such as to contact another server or device to obtain gameschedule information, updated player rosters or the like.

The activity management server 24 might also include one or more userinterface features. Such might comprise, for example, a user stationincluding a video display and one or more input devices (such as akeyboard, mouse or the like). Such a user station may permit an operatorto interface with and manage or control the activity management server24, such as to change operator settings and the like.

It will be appreciated that the activity management server 24 mightcomprise more than one device. For example, the activity managementserver 24 might comprise a router and one or more separate computingdevices. The functions of the various computing devices might besegregated. For example, one computing device might save and verifylogin information (as detailed below), while another might monitor gameplay via the gaming devices.

As described in more detail below, at one or more times a presentationdevice 22 and the activity management server 24 are linked by acommunication link between their communication interfaces. The type ofcommunication link may vary, such as depending upon the particular typeof presentation device 22 and/or the communication path or protocol,which is utilized.

In one embodiment, the presentation device 22 and activity managementserver 24 may communicate through at least network 38. Such a networkmight comprise the Internet, a cellular network, a satellitecommunication network, and/or other networks or communication systems ordevices. As another alternative, the communication link might comprise adedicated link, such as a dedicated wired link between the devices.Further, the communication link might comprise a number of local, widearea or other networks or pathways linked together. Such networks mightbe public and/or private. Further, communication may occur usingdifferent channels or links, such as secure (for the exchange ofsensitive/private fan data) and unsecure (for the exchange of generalpublic information) channels.

Preferably, the activity management server 24 is configured to serviceor communicate with multiple presentation devices 22. In this manner, anoperator can communicate with and present the activity to multiple fans.For example, an operator might operate one or more servers in specificlocations, which servers serve mobile fans over a large area, such asone or more states or countries.

As indicated above, the activity management server 24 may include amatchup suggestion engine, a matchup tool and other features. Suchfeatures may be implemented by machine-readable or executable code or“software” which is stored in a tangible medium (such as in or on a datastorage device). The matchup suggestion engine and/or matchup tool mightaccess stored information or access information externally, such as toobtain player information, game schedules or the like, or to obtainphotos of players when forming graphical presentations of proposedmatchups.

Of course, aspects of the invention may be implemented via distributedsystems or devices, via a “cloud” implementation, or using othertechnology now known or later developed.

Aspects of the invention may also be implemented as an “application”(i.e. downloadable, installable or installed software) which runs on thepresentation device 22. For example, as indicated above, one aspect ofthe invention is a “mobile client” which may comprise a downloadableapplication. For example, a fan may download an application from theoperator or from an application store. The application may be stored onthe fan's presentation device 22 and then be executed by one or moreprocessors thereof.

One advantage of the downloadable application is that a much moreengaging and rich media experience may be provided to the fan. Further,enhanced security features including authentication and verification ofidentity, location, and other factors may be implemented on theapplication to deliver a compliant and secure experience for the fan.

The mobile client may be configured to interface with the activitymanagement server 24, such as to receive information from that server 24and to transmit information to that server 24, as well as implementother functionality. As one example, after a fan has downloaded theapplication, the fan may start the application. The application (aloneor in conjunction with data acquired from the server 24) may cause aWelcome interface to be displayed at the fan's device, such asillustrated in FIG. 12.

The fan may be required to create a user account before they are able toparticipate in activities. For example, by selecting the “CreateAccount” option from the Welcome page, the fan's device may display anew page or interface, such as illustrated in FIG. 13. This page maycomprise a form into which the fan may input data which is transmittedfrom their device 22 to the server 24 for use in generating the account.For example, the fan may generate a user name and password, which issecurely stored on the activity management server 24. The fan may submitidentification information and preferences. For example, the fan mayprovide identifying information including birthday, gender, address,phone number, and the like. The fan may also provide various preferencesincluding favorite sports, favorite teams, and favorite players. The fanmay submit the information via his or her presentation device 22. Forexample, the fan may manually enter such information, or may import theinformation from a driver's license or other form of identification. Theactivity management server 24 may further acquire location informationfrom the presentation device. The operator may require such informationfor purposes such as verification of a fan's age and location, such asto comply with certain laws or regulations.

In addition, the management server 24 may present different playermatchups, or may change the order of player matchups based on theaccount information of the user. For example, of forty matchups, theactivity management server 24 may present the matchups having a fan'spreferred player or team before presenting the additional matchups, inorder to increase the interest of the fan in those matchups.

The management server 24 may store the account information of each fan.In this manner, the management server may associate each of the fan'sselections from the various matchups with the fan's account. Themanagement server 24 is configured to send account information to thefan's presentation device 22 to allow a fan to manage his or heraccount.

For example, as shown in FIG. 14, the fan may have the ability to viewand access his or her account information on the presentation device 22.In one embodiment, the fan may view his or her current matchup cards totrack the status of his or her selected matchups. The fan further mayview messages from the operator concerning the fantasy sports activity,such as removal of a matchup due to an injury of a player, or a statusupdate on one or more of the fan's cards. The fan may further updateaccount information as necessary, or may contact customer support asneeded.

The invention has a number of benefits and advantages. A particularadvantage of the invention is the creation of a skill-based activity,which relates to one or more sports events and the participants thereof.The activity preferably comprises a fantasy type sports activity whichdoes not comprise sports wagering and which is not pari-mutuel in natureInstead, in accordance with the present invention, an activity isdefined which allows a fan to participate in a skill-based fantasysports activity that does not require the time and coordination requiredin typical fantasy sports activities by assisting the fan in selecting amatch up. Further, the outcome of the activity is measured skill of theuser versus the skill of the matchmaker.—In addition, if a fan isdeclared a winner, the fan is paid a fixed amount (rather than a shareor amount, which is based upon the number of other fans who arewinners).

It will be appreciated that aspects of the invention may be implementedin other manners, other environments, or in other combinations. Forexample, the “swipe to select and present next information” feature ofthe mobile client might be implemented relative to other types ofinformation (other than the type of activity described herein), such asan on-line shopping tool or the like.

FIG. 15 shows some of the internal components within the activity serversystem 150 and within the presentation device 151 of a fan. The fanfirst communicates through the presentation device 151 with the activityserver system 150 and downloads a platform 152. The platform 152 is thenrun on the presentation device 151. The platform 152 provides aninterface between the activity server system 150 and anyplatform-specific game application 153 that is downloaded to thepresentation device 151. The platform 152 may perform some or all of theauthentication processing and will determine if the user meets with aset of compliance criteria. The fan downloads a platform specific gameapplication 153 to the presentation device 151 from the activity serversystem 150. The platform specific game application 153 includes hooks,such as API function calls to the platform. Thus, the game application153 will only operate if authorized by the platform 152. As previouslynoted, the compliance criteria may be based upon local or national lawsand determining whether the user complies with such laws. For example,the platform 152 may have access to GPS information, or IP-basedlocation information and may use this information to select thecompliance criteria based upon location. Additionally, the age of thefan may be pertinent as jurisdictions may have various age requirements.Thus, the platform 152 will interface with the presentation device 151and extract information from one or more sources (e.g. GPS data, IPinformation) or may require the fan to enter a password or answer aseries of questions to validate the fan's identity. Once the platform152 determines that the fan is an authorized user and one that meets thecompliance criteria, the platform 152 will grant access to theapplication game and allow the application game to either communicate154 directly with the activity server system or communicate 155 with theactivity server system 150 through the platform 152.

The activity server system 150 may include one or more servers (e.g.management server 24) and may operate in a distributed computingenvironment. Thus, the functionality performed by the computer-basedmodules of the activity server system may be distributed acrossprocessors. The presentation device 151 of the fan interfaces with oneor more computer-based modules of the activity server 150 through acommunications network. The activity server system 150 will receive arequest to play a game from the presentation device at an authenticationengine 156 and will receive a key that indicates that the platform 152has confirmed compliance. The authentication engine 156 will access afan account information module 157 and will obtain the accountinformation for the specified fan. The authentication engine 156 mayperform additional authentication based upon data passed from theplatform and the fan's account information.

Once the authentication engine 156 is satisfied, the authenticationengine will access the gaming engine 158. The gaming engine 158 providesgame information (i.e. matchup data, graphical images, statistics) tothe game application 153 on the presentation device 151. The game engine158 is in communication with a matchup suggestion engine 159, an imagedatabase 160, a participant statistics and historical informationdatabase 161. The game engine 158 gathers this information and formatsthe information in accordance with a protocol that will be recognizedand understood by the game application. The game application 153 willreceive the data and incorporate the data into one or more templates forpresentation to the user. Additionally, the application program 153 willprovide an interface for the transmission of selection data and othergame related data to the game engine 158.

The matchup suggestion engine 159, will provide a series of matchups tothe game engine 158 based upon a plurality of factors including: thespecific fan and his likes and dislikes (e.g. as to teams or particularparticipants etc.), a risk assessment engine 162 determination, and aset of predetermined matchups. The predetermined matchups are determinedby an operator, who is knowledgeable about the specific activityassociated with the fantasy activity of the game.

A matchup tool 163 is provided to the operator for assisting theoperator in his selections. The matchup tool 163 may include a graphicalinterface and accesses participant statistics and historical data in adatabase 161. The operator 164 determines these matchups and thepredetermined matchups are stored in a matchup database 165.

The matchup suggestion engine 159 will communicate with a riskassessment engine 162. The risk assessment engine 162 receives all ofthe predetermined matchups from the database 165 and determines whethermatchups should be eliminated based upon a criteria set. As expressedabove, the risk assessment engine 162 may eliminate matchups based uponplayer injures or if a determination is made that the matchup is nolonger an even match. The risk assessment engine 162 may receive datafrom one or more locations about matchups selection by users. If thematchup selections reach a predetermined percentage in favor of one ofthe participants, the risk assessment engine 162 may remove the matchupfrom the list of possible matchups. It should be understood by one ofordinary skill in the art that other analytical tools may be used forassessing risk and making determinations about, which matchups toeliminate from presentation. Additionally, it should be recognized thatthe risk assessment engine 162 continues to operate during the playingof the sports games and can causes the matchups displayed betweenend-users to change. The risk assessment engine may allow for anoperator to respond to the identification of a risk and to take actionbased on that risk by instructing the activity server and 150 to changethe predetermined matchups as stored in data source 165. Risk can beidentified based upon information, such as a report about an athlete, aninjury report, information posted on a news or blog website. The riskassessment engine may include a web monitoring tool for each player thatis part of a matchup, such that information about the player iscollected and represented to an operator. Additionally, the riskassessment engine may be regularly updated based upon wagers that occur.For example, the risk assessment engine may provide a listing of the 10highest matchups with the greatest risk. The risk could be based simplyon an imbalance in sales or on a more complex formula. Additionally, therisk assessment engine 162 may monitor all of the selections by usersand identify if there are imbalances based upon groups of matchups thatshow an imbalance in the selected matchups. The risk assessment engineincludes a graphical user interface that displays the matchups with thegreatest risk and reports on developing news about players whereimbalances in matchup selections are occurring. For example, the 30highest matchups that have the greatest risk may be presented and a newsticker of information about the players in the matchups may be includedfrom either a general web search or by monitoring specific websites(sports-related websites, e.g. ESPN, NBA, MLB etc. or fantasysports-related websites) for the names of the players in the matchups.Thus, the risk assessment engine, allows for monitoring of risk inreal-time.

In embodiments of the invention, the risk assessment engine can beautomated based upon threshold values to remove matchups. For example,there may be a monetary threshold for a matchup that will cause thematchup to be removed, such as a $500,000 differential in bets on oneplayer or if more than 80% of the wagers are on one player.

The risk assessment engine 162 passes the matchups to the matchupselection engine 159. The matchup suggestion engine 159 may then furthereliminate some of the matchups. For example, matchups that include aparticipant from a favored team of the fan may be preferred. Similarly,matchups that include participants from a team that the fan does notlike will be given a lower priority. Other factors may be used by thematchup selection engine 159 in determining the matchups to present asdiscussed above.

The game engine 158 will then send the pruned matchups from the matchupselection engine 159 along with images of the participants in thematchups, statistics of the participants and other data needed by theapplication game 153 for providing the intended visual and gameexperience to the fan on the presentation device 151 through a securenetwork connection 154. It should be recognized that the platform 152and the application 153 are client programs that run locally on thepresentation device of the user. The various components of the activityserver system can communicate with one another through an ApplicationProgramming Interface (API) 170. The API allows for the communication ofthe game information between the application 153 and the gaming engine158. Additionally, the API can be used for supplying both tools such asthe match-up tool and the risk assessment engine to a presentationdevice of the operator 164 in the form a client programs 172, so thatthe operator may remotely monitor and make changes to the game withoutthe need to be directly connected to the activity server system 150. Theapplication game 153 will receive this data and will incorporate thedata into one or more templates for presentation on the displayassociated with the presentation device 151. Communication will continuebetween the game engine 158 and the application game 153 until the endof the session. The fan's selection will be saved and stored in adatabase 157 associated with the fan's account. The game engine 158includes a settlement engine 171 that will also determine whether theuser has selected one or more winning participants and will inform theapplication game 153 whether the fan has won the game based upon thegame rules. The settlement engine is also configured to provide paymentto a winning user and may interact with the fan account information datastore 157 to determine where any winnings should be transferred (e.g. abanking account, such as a checking account or other account such asPayPal account).

In one embodiment of the invention, the game engine allows a fan to pickfrom a plurality of matchups and the user can also select betweendifferent parlay options. The parlay payouts may be determined in thegaming engine or may be determined in another server and imported intothe activity server system 150.

The Graduated Payout Table system is a method for providing multipleuser options for parlay purchases. These options allow the user toselect between hedge values that provide various levels of risk versuspayout. The payout multipliers are dependent on the number of picks, thenumber of wins, and the user selected hedge value. The Graduated PayoutTable is a three dimensional array whose axes are represented by picks,wins, and hedge. For any purchase, the final payout is the array valuedetermined by those parameters.

A 3D Graduated Payout Table can be calculated from a standardone-dimensional flat payout table as commonly used to generate parlaypayouts. The result Graduated Payout Table provides equivalent risk andodds performance for the house and for the end user. The result oftruncating or shaving any data value or values is a table that in allways provides equal or better risk in favor of the house.

The Graduated Payout Table is generated based on the premise that thepayout odds for certain types of simple purchases (picking 4 of 4matches, 5 of 5 matches, 6 of 6 matches) can be combined in such a wayas to demonstrate that those odds are equivalent to other morecomplicated purchases (4 out of 5 matches, 5 out of 6 matches, 3 out of5 matches etc.). In this manner, a composite purchase is defined thatallows various payout options based on performance (number of wins),having the risk of the set of simple purchases. The risk for thecomposite purchase is the sum of the risk values for the simplepurchases in the set. In order to simplify the explanation for thegraduated payout table a default payout table is assumed for simplepurchases. It should be recognized by one of ordinary skill in the artthat other default payout schema may be used without deviating from theinvented scope of the invention.

1. Default Flat Payout Table. Picks 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Payout 5- 10- 18-35- 70- 125- 250- 500- for-1 for-1 for-1 for-1 for-1 for-1 for-1 for-1FIG. 1. Default Flat Payout Table

Composite Purchase Definition: A 10-Pick Parlay in which 10-Wins payoutis X-for-1 and 9-Wins payout is Y-for-1. Fewer Wins result in zeropayout. In order to determine the equivalent set of simple parlaypurchases, there is some combination of 10-Pick Simple Parlays and9-Pick Simple Parlays that is equivalent to the Composite Purchase. A‘Simple Parlay’ is a purchase in which all of the Picks must be Wins.One equivalent combination is one 10-Pick and ten 9-Picks, where all ofthe picks are the same 10 matchups selected in the Composite Purchase.Purchase amounts and final payouts still need to be calculated. Forexample, an $11.00 total purchase. For the Composite Purchase, that isone purchase for $11.00. For the equivalent set of simple purchases,there is one 10-Pick for $1.00 and ten 9-Picks for $1.00 each in whicheach of the 9-Picks choose a different combination of the original tenMatchups.

In both cases, the user has now spent $11.00. This purchased the singleComposite Purchase or the 11 simple purchases. For the 11 simplepurchases, we can calculate the user's odds of winning and the potentialpayout for every possible outcome as follows:

If all 10 selections Win, then the user Wins his 10-Pick and all ten ofhis 9-Picks. The 10-Pick pays out at 500-for-1 according to the flatpayout table. The 9-Picks each pay out at 250-for-1 according to thesame payout table. Therefore, the total win is:

Payout=$1.00·500+10·$1.00·250=$500.00+$2500.00=$3000.00.

If any 9 of the 10 selections Win, then exactly one of the user's 9-Pickpurchases will win and pay out at 250-for-1. Therefore, the total winis:

Payout=$1.00·250=$250.00.

If fewer than 9 of the 10 selections Win, then all 11 of the user'spurchases are Losers and the payout is zero. Looking at the combinationof 11 separate purchases as a single entity, the payout equivalenciesare 272-for-1 if all 10 picks Win and 22-for-1 if nine of the 10 picksWin, as demonstrated in FIG. 2. Composite Payouts 10-Picks Hedge=1.

$11.00 Purchase Normalized Pretty* 10-Wins $3000.00 272.72-for-1^(†)250-for-1  9-Wins  $250.00  22.73-for-1^(‡)  20-for-1 FIG. 2. CompositePayouts 10-Picks Hedge = 1Hedge is a purchase definition parameter that defines the maximum numberof selections that are permitted to Lose in a Composite purchase thathas a non-zero payout. The traditional simple 10-Pick parlay purchaserequires all selections to Win in order for any payout to occur.Therefore, Hedge=0. The Example above provides payout for a minimum of9-Wins, which is ‘1’ less than the number of Picks. Hence, Hedge=1.

The next example provides payout for 8-Wins in a 10-Pick parlay. Hence,Hedge=2. Consider a $56.00 Composite Purchase where 8, 9, or 10 Winsprovide payouts.

The equivalent individual purchases are:1 $1.00 10-Pick purchase10 $1.00 9-Pick purchases45 $1.00 8-Pick purchases

If all 10 selections Win, then the user Wins his 10-Pick and all ten ofhis 9-Picks and all 45 of his 8-Picks. The 10-Pick pays out at500-for-1, the 9-Picks each pay out at 250-for-1, and the 8-Picks eachpayout at 125-for-1. Therefore, the total win is:

Payout=$1.00·500+10·$1.00·250+45·$1.00·125=$500.00+$2500.00+$5625.00=$8625.00.

If any 9 of the 10 selections Win, then exactly one of the user's 9-Pickpurchases will win and pay out at 250-for-1 and nine of the user's8-Pick purchases will win and pay out at 125-for-1. Therefore, the totalwin is:

Payout=$1.00·250+9·$1.00·125=$250.00+$1125.00=$1375.00.

If anyone combination of 8 of the 10 selections Win, then exactly one ofthe user's 8-Pick purchases will win and pay 125-for-1. Therefore, thetotal win is:

Payout=$1.00·125=$125.00.

$56.00 Purchase Normalized Pretty 10-Wins $8625.00 154.01-for-1150-for-1  9-Wins $1375.00  24.55-for-1  20-for-1  8-Wins  $125.00 2.23-for-1  2-for-1 FIG. 3. Composite Payouts 10-Picks Hedge = 2

The number of combinations of R objects in a set of N objects is:

combinations=N!/(R!(N−R)!)

Both of the examples use the intuitively obvious case of 9 parlays with10 selections.

In this case

10!/(9!·1!)=3628800/(362880·1)=10.

Thus, there are 10 possible ways to arrange 10 selections into 9-Picks.

Similarly for 8-Picks in 10 possible selections, there are:

10!/(8!·2!)=3628800/(40320·2)=3628800/80640=45.

There are 45 ways to build 8-Pick purchases from a set of 10 totalselections.Also, there are 1+10+45=56 ways to build 8, 9, or 10-Pick parlays out of10 selections.

Certain constraints apply to the mathematical formula when applied to areal-world game. One is that the number of possible picks needs to besupported by a pre-defined payout table. The minimum number of picks islimited to the number of picks supported by the current payout table.Further, the number of wins is constrained to between 0 and the numberof user picks. [0, Picks]. The Hedge value varies inversely with thepayout value, such that the higher the Hedge value, the lower the payoutvalue, and payout values quickly dip well below 1.0. In one version ofthe invention fractional payouts are not supported so that the hedgevalue is constrained to a lower bound of 1.

The above discussed methodology may be implemented in computer code foroperation on a computer system for determining graduated payout tablesbased upon a predetermined payout table. Provided below is pseudo codefor the determination of the graduated payout tables. The methodologycan be employed in the gaming engine 158 based upon the criteria of thegame such as the number of possible matchups, possible hedges, and thepredefined payout table prior to a game becoming active and availablefor a user/fan. In other embodiments, the graduated payout tables may beprecalculated and stored in a data store and accessed and used by thegaming engine 158 when registering a user's matchups and hedge selectionand upon payout to the user based on the conclusion of the all of thegames for which a user has selected matchups.

// Default Flat Payout Table const int maxPayoutTable[ ] = { 0, // 0Picks 0, // 1 Pick 0, // 2 Picks 5, // 3 Picks 10, // 4 Picks 18, // 5Picks 35, // 6 Picks 70, // 7 Picks 125, // 8 Picks 250, // 9 Picks 500// 10 Picks }; // ‘comboCount’ is the table of combinations of n itemsin m samples. // // n | 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 //======|============================================= // m = 4 | 4 6 4 1// m = 5 | 5 10 10 5 1 // m = 6 | 6 15 20 15 6 1 // m = 7 | 7 21 35 3521 7 1 // m = 8 | 8 28 56 70 56 28 8 1 // m = 9 | 9 36 84 126 126 84 369 1 // m = 10 | 10 45 120 210 252 210 120 45 10 1 // Total number ofpurchases is the sum of combinations at // each supported (hedged)level. int calculatePurchaseCount(const int nPick, const int nHedge) {int totalCount = 0; for(int iHedge = 0; iHedge <= nHedge; iHedge++) {const int n = nPick − iHedge; const int m = nPick; const int nCombos =comboCount[n][m]; totalCount += nCombos; } return totalCount; } doublecalculatePayout(const int nPick, const int nHedge, const int nWin) { intsumPay = 0; for(int iHedge = 0; iHedge <= nHedge; iHedge++) { const intiPick = nPick − iHedge; if(nWin >= iPick) { const int nCombos =comboCount[iPick][nWin]; const int iPay = maxPayoutTable[iPick]; sumPay+= iPay * nCombos; } } const int purchaseCount =calculatePurchaseCount(nPick, nHedge); return (double)sumPay /purchaseCount; }

The result of the algorithm is the graduated payout tables, which areprovided below and are based upon the predefined default flat payouttable as shown in FIG. 1. The ‘Exact’ version of the graduated payouttable is displayed exactly as calculated. The ‘Proposed’ version isdisplayed with payout values rounded down to integers.

Graduated Payout Table Exact Number of Picks (1 through 7): 1,  2,   3,4, 5, 6, 7, Hedge [null, null, [5.0], [10.0], [18.0], [35.0], [70.0], //0 [null, null, null, null, [11.3, 1.7], [20.4, 2.6], [39.4, 4.4], // 1[null, null, null, null, null, [13.3, 3.1, 0.5], [23.9, 4.9, 0.6], // 2[null, null, null, null, null, null, [16.3, 4.6, 1.1, 0.2], // 3 [null,null, null, null, null, null, null, // 4 [null, null, null, null, null,null, null, // 5 [null, null, null, null, null, null, null, // 6 Numberof Picks (8 through 10): 8,        9,      10 Hedge [125.0], [250.0],[500.0]], // 0  [76.1, 7.8], [137.5, 12.5], [272.7, 22.71]], // 1 [45.0, 8.5, 0.9], [84.7, 14.9, 1.5], [154.0, 24.6, 2.2]], // 2  [28.7,7.5, 1.5, 0.2], [52.6, 12.8, 2.4, 0.3], [96.7, 22.1, 3.9, 0.4]], // 3 [20.7, 6.4, 1.8, 0.4, 0.1], [3 5.6, 10.4, 2.7, 0.6, 0.1], [63.1, 17.7,4.3, 0.8, 0.1]], // 4 null, [27.1, 8.8, 2.7, 0.8, 0.2], [45.3, 14.3,4.2, 1.1, 0.2]], // 5 null, null, [36.6, 12.2, 4.0, 1.2, 0.3, 0.1]] // 6

Graduated Payout Table Proposed Number of Picks:1,  2,  3,  4,  5,   6,   7,   8,    9,    10 Hedge[null, null,  [5], [10],  [18],  [35],  [70],  [125],   [250],   [500]],// 0 [null, null, null, null, [10, 1], [20, 2], [35, 4], [75,5],     [130, 10], [250, 20]], // 1 [null, null, null, null, null,  [10,3], [15, 4, 1], [40, 8],   [80, 10, 1], [150, 20, 2]], // 2[null, null, null, null, null, null, null, [25, 5, 1], [50, 10, 2], [40,10, 4]] // 3

After all the games have ended for all of the matchups for a user, thesystem moves toward settlement with the user through settlement engine171. In some instances, degradation of matchups may occur. Degradationoccurs when matchups are cancelled for various reasons (due to injury,lack of playing time by a player, unusual betting practices etc.). Thiswill cause at least one of the matchups selected by a user to be voidand if the user has selected standard payout (pick all winningmatchups), the user will be provided with a N−1 payout from the standardpayout table if all of the user's other picks are winning picks. In thecase where, settlement occurs and the user has selected a parlay forpayment based upon the graduated payout tables, settlement can occur aswith the standard payout tables. However in an embodiment of theinvention, the user selected ‘Hedge’ value is used for the degradedroster. If the new pick value does not support the selected Hedge value,the next lower Hedge value is used instead. For example, if the userpurchased a 6-Pick Roster with Hedge=1 and the Roster are degraded to a5-Pick, the supported value Hedge=1 will still be used. As anotherexample, for the same 6-Pick Roster but with Hedge=2, when the Roster isdegraded to a 5-Pick, the Hedge value must also be degraded to Hedge=1,because that is the highest Hedge value supported for a 5-Pick parlay.

It will be understood that the above described arrangements of apparatusand the method there from are merely illustrative of applications of theprinciples of this invention and many other embodiments andmodifications may be made without departing from the spirit and scope ofthe invention as defined in the claims.

The present invention may be embodied in many different forms,including, but in no way limited to, computer program logic for use witha processor (e.g., a microprocessor, microcontroller, digital signalprocessor, or general purpose computer), programmable logic for use witha programmable logic device (e.g., a Field Programmable Gate Array(FPGA) or other PLD), discrete components, integrated circuitry (e.g.,an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC)), or any other meansincluding any combination thereof.

Computer program logic implementing all or part of the functionalitypreviously described herein may be embodied in various forms, including,but in no way limited to, a source code form, a computer executableform, and various intermediate forms (e.g., forms generated by anassembler, compiler, networker, or locator.) Source code may include aseries of computer program instructions implemented in any of variousprogramming languages (e.g., an object code, an assembly language, or ahigh-level language such as FORTRAN, C, C++, JAVA, or HTML) for use withvarious operating systems or operating environments. The source code maydefine and use various data structures and communication messages. Thesource code may be in a computer executable form (e.g., via aninterpreter), or the source code may be converted (e.g., via atranslator, assembler, or compiler) into a computer executable form.

The computer program may be fixed in any form (e.g., source code form,computer executable form, or an intermediate form) either permanently ortransitorily in a tangible storage medium, such as a semiconductormemory device (e.g., a RAM, ROM, PROM, EEPROM, or Flash-ProgrammableRAM), a magnetic memory device (e.g., a diskette or fixed disk), anoptical memory device (e.g., a CD-ROM), a PC card (e.g., PCMCIA card),or other memory device. The computer program may be fixed in any form ina signal that is transmittable to a computer using any of variouscommunication technologies, including, but in no way limited to, analogtechnologies, digital technologies, optical technologies, wirelesstechnologies, networking technologies, and internetworking technologies.The computer program may be distributed in any form as a removablestorage medium with accompanying printed or electronic documentation(e.g., shrink wrapped software or a magnetic tape), preloaded with acomputer system (e.g., on system ROM or fixed disk), or distributed froma server or electronic bulletin board over the communication system(e.g., the Internet or World Wide Web).

Hardware logic (including programmable logic for use with a programmablelogic device) implementing all or part of the functionality previouslydescribed herein may be designed using traditional manual methods, ormay be designed, captured, simulated, or documented electronically usingvarious tools, such as Computer Aided Design (CAD), a hardwaredescription language (e.g., VHDL or AHDL), or a PLD programming language(e.g., PALASM, ABEL, or CUPL).

While the invention has been particularly shown and described withreference to specific embodiments, it will be understood by thoseskilled in the art that various changes in form and detail may be madetherein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention asdefined by the appended clauses. As will be apparent to those skilled inthe art, techniques described above for panoramas may be applied toimages that have been captured as non-panoramic images, and vice versa.

Embodiments of the present invention may be described, withoutlimitation, by the following clauses. While these embodiments have beendescribed in the clauses by process steps, an apparatus comprising acomputer with associated display capable of executing the process stepsin the clauses below is also included in the present invention.Likewise, a computer program product including computer executableinstructions for executing the process steps in the clauses below andstored on a computer readable medium is included within the presentinvention.

The embodiments of the invention described above are intended to bemerely exemplary; numerous variations and modifications will be apparentto those skilled in the art. All such variations and modifications areintended to be within the scope of the present invention as defined inany appended claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A system for presenting a skill-based game, thesystem comprising: a non-transitory storage medium storing machinereadable code; at least one activity server system comprising aprocessor configured to execute the machine readable code and tocommunicate over a wide area network with a plurality of presentationcomputing devices, each distinct one of the presentation computingdevices associated with a distinct one of a plurality of users, and toreceive information from the plurality of presentation computingdevices; and a device storage system coupled to the activity serversystem storing (i) information concerning a plurality of users, eachuser identifiable by a user account, and (ii) event data pertinent to aset of events and participants in the set of events; wherein, themachine-readable code, when executed by the activity server system,causes performance of computer processes comprising: separatelyresponsive to communications initiated from each of the presentationcomputing devices, serving, over the wide area network, to thepresentation devices, a set of matchups, wherein each matchup offers, toa given user, an opportunity to make a choice selected from the groupconsisting of (i) a first set of participants, from among a plurality ofsets of participants, projected by the given user to achieve a firstscore superior to a second score of a second set of participants and(ii) a projection by the given user that a score of a third set ofparticipants will be over, or under, a score of the third set ofparticipants projected by the activity server system, along withassociated fixed-payout odds based on winning criteria, so as to causethe presentation devices to display the set of matchups and theassociated fixed payout odds; receiving, separately, from thepresentation devices, over the wide area network, user roster datacharacterizing a set of user-selected winners with respect to theselected matchups; updating the event data pertinent to participants inthe actual events; and using the updated data to calculate and assignpayoffs to the users based on both the set of user-selected winners andthe fixed payoff odds, wherein determination of whether a given user isa winner or loser is based solely upon the given user's selections andnot on those of other users: wherein the machine-readable code, whenexecuted by the activity server system, causes performance of computerprocesses further comprising: receiving, by the activity server system,schedule information about a plurality of games from an informationsource containing the schedule information; determining, by the activityserver system, athletes expected to compete in the plurality of games byaccessing player information from an information source containing theplayer information; evaluating, by the activity server system, theathletes using historical fantasy point performance values for theathletes based at least upon calculated expected fantasy pointperformance values to be scored by the athletes in a next game; andcausing display, by the activity server system, in a graphical userinterface, identities of the athletes according to their expectedfantasy point performance values wherein the graphical user interfaceallows a match maker to select players to assign to a matchup.
 2. Thesystem according to claim 1, wherein the machine-readable code, whenexecuted by the activity server system, causes performance of computerprocesses further comprising: in a matchup selection tool process,creating and modifying the set of matchups based on a plurality ofparticipants, and transmitting the set of matchups to the users.
 3. Thesystem according to claim 2, wherein the matchup selection tool processfurther includes presenting information about the participants includingexpected fantasy points for each participant for an upcoming event. 4.The system according to claim 2, wherein the machine-readable code, whenexecuted by the activity server system, causes performance of computerprocesses further comprising: in a risk assessment engine process:determining a total possible payout based upon the user-selected winnersfor a selected matchup; comparing the total possible payout with apredetermined threshold; and if the total possible payout exceeds thethreshold, removing the selected matchup from the set of matchups to beserved thereafter.
 5. The system according to claim 1, wherein receivingthe user roster data includes receiving, from at least some of thepresentation devices, as part of the roster data user-selected hedgevalue by which a given user specifies a minimum number of a total numberof matchup outcome selections made by the given user that must becorrect in order for the given user to win.
 6. The system according toclaim 5, wherein: the machine-readable code, when executed by theactivity server system, causes performance of computer processes furthercomprising calculating a graduated payout table based on the fixedpayout odds; and serving over the wide area network a set of matchups ofparticipants along with associated fixed payout odds to the presentationdevices further comprises serving the graduated payout table.
 7. Thesystem according to claim 1, wherein ranking further comprises: for eachathlete: providing by the server system a filter to the matchmaker forfiltering relevant historical fantasy point performance values for theathlete from a set of historical fantasy point performance values basedupon a criteria set; predicting, based on the historical fantasy pointperformance values, by the server system an expected team fantasy pointperformance value for the team of the athlete for the same game; anddetermining, by the server system, the expected fantasy performancevalues of the athlete based on the filtered relevant historical fantasypoints performance values weighted by the predicted team fantasy pointperformance value divided by a historical team fantasy point performancevalue.
 8. The system according to claim 7, wherein determining theexpected fantasy performance values of the athlete based on filteredrelevant historical fantasy points performance values includes using thepredicted team fantasy point performance value that has been filteredbased on the criteria set.
 9. The system according to claim 7, whereinthe computer processes further comprise, after determining the expectedfantasy point performance values for the athletes, ordering the athletesaccording to expected fantasy point values.
 10. The system according toclaim 9, wherein causing display by the server system of the identitiesof the athletes further includes causing display of the identities ofthe athletes according to position.
 11. The system according to claim 7,wherein the computer processes further comprise: receiving an input fromthe matchmaker defining a selection of individual athletes to assign toa matchup; allowing a matchmaker to review the list of athletes andexpected fantasy point performance values and to select individualathletes to assign to a matchup; and storing the assignment of athletesto the matchup in a matchup data store.
 12. The system according toclaim 1, wherein the criteria set for filtering the relevant historicalfantasy point performance values includes at least one of number ofprevious games played, duration of play within the games, algorithmselection, venue, and characteristic of at least one member of theopposing team.
 13. The system according to claim 1, wherein themachine-readable code, when executed by the activity server system,causes performance of computer processes further comprising: in acomputer-based risk assessment engine process, querying the data storeto identify, among users' matchup selections, those instances in whichthere is a disparity in frequency of selection of a specific one of thetwo participants in a selected matchup, and wherein the disparity infrequency of selection exceeds a first threshold; when such a matchupwith a disproportionate number of users selecting one of the twoparticipants in a matchup has been identified, determining whether thenumber exceeds a first threshold; if the number exceeds the firstthreshold, removing or modifying the matchup from the set of matchupsfor all subsequent requests for serving the set of matchups, if thedisparity in frequency of selection exceeds the first threshold, thenalso determining whether a total potential payout associated thoseinstances can exceed a second threshold; if the total potential payoutassociated with those instances can exceed the second threshold, thenremoving the selected matchup from the set of matchups or modifying theodds payout associated with the selected matchup.
 14. The systemaccording to claim 1, wherein the machine-readable code, when executedby the activity server system, causes performance of computer processesfurther comprising: monitoring electronic information sources aboutmentions of participants in the set of matchups and monitoring forkeywords including the keyword “injury” and if a mention of aparticipant occurs on an electronic information source and a keyword isidentified, producing a graphical alert to an operator, the graphicalalert allowing the operator to remove one or more matchups.
 15. Thesystem according to claim 14, wherein at least some of the matchups arepre-selected to be closely or evenly matched with respect to an expectedoutcome.
 16. The system according to claim 15, wherein the pre-selectedmatchups are based on a statistical analysis of matchup participants.17. The system according to claim 14, further comprising: dynamicallyupdating the set of matchups based on real-time information affecting atleast one of the matchups.
 18. The system according to claim 14, whereinthe users are required to participate in at least a predeterminedminimum number of matchups from the set of presented matchups.